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Library, Columbia University. |
Cox Center Director Joins Roundtable in New York on Future of Journalism Education
Dr. Lee B. Becker, director of the Cox International Center at the University of Georgia, was an invited participant at Columbia University in New York in April for a round-table discussion of the future of professional master’s level education in journalism.
Dr. Becker shared insights from the Annual Surveys of Journalism & Mass Communication, which he has directed for 25 years, with about 25 educators from the U.S., France, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
The event, organized by School of Journalism at Columbia University, was part of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education.
The discussion at the April 10 meeting was organized around four themes: the history of journalism education; core knowledge and methods for journalists; skills and concentrations for graduate journalism programs, and journalism education outside the United States.
The latter session included comments from representatives of the Ecole de Journalisme in Paris, the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and City University in London.
Dr. Becker provided historical data on the growth of master’s level journalism programs in the United States as well as on the changes in curricular focus in journalism education across the years.
At present, 215 of the countries 481 established journalism and mass communication programs in the U.S. offer master’s degree programs, he told the group. That is an increase from the 141 master’s programs in 1989.
The Annual Surveys of Journalism & Mass Communication, which provide educational and labor force data on the field, are housed in the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research, which Dr. Becker directs.
The Cox Center is a unit of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.
The April 10 meeting was held at the Faculty House at Columbia University.
